A timeline of the investigation of Sheriff Robert Arnold from April 2015 until Sept. 28, 2016.
HELEN COMER/DNJ

MURFREESBORO — The attorney who filed a suit to oust Sheriff Robert Arnold from office issued a subpoena to the Grayson County, Ky., jail where he's incarcerated before his JailCigs trial.

Local case records also show that Chancellor William Young of Nashville has agreed to preside over the ouster suit after all the judges based in the Rutherford County and Cannon County 16th Judicial District recused themselves.

No hearing has been scheduled for the ouster suit, according to records on Monday morning with the Rutherford County Chancery Court where Murfreesboro attorney Michelle Blaylock-Howser filed the case on behalf of 12 plaintiffs from Rutherford County.

Arnold's attorneys have not responded yet to the ouster suit filed the day after U.S. Magistrate Judge Alistair Newbern revoked his $250,000 pretrail release bond on Sept. 28 and ordered the Rutherford County sheriff be detained while awaiting the start of his Feb, 7 jury trial.

Arnold, his uncle John Vanderveer and Joe Russell, a Rutherford County Sheriff's Office accounting chief, face a 13-count indictment accusing them of illegally profiting from inmates at the jail in Murfreesboro through the sale of JailCigs, an electronic cigarettes business.

Judge Newbern based her decision to revoke Arnold's bond after she found probable cause that Arnold committed domestic assault, witness tampering and intimidation of his wife on Labor Day. The judge asked the U.S. Marshals Service to detain Arnold, who was booked at the Kentucky jail.

The judge also expressed concern that Arnold had abused the authority of his office in his interaction with a deputy responding to the domestic assault report. Newbern also mentioned Arnold's retaliation in the firing of his third-in-command Virgil Gammon for providing information to authorities investigating the JailCigs case.

In addition to the subpoena issued to the Kentucky Jail, the suit issued subpoenas to the custodian of records for the Rutherford County Sheriff's Office, the Rutherford County Budget & Finance Office, and a couple of jail vendors, Keefe Group and Telmate, according to case records filed with the Rutherford County Chancery Court.

Rutherford County Finance Director Lisa Nolen accepted one of the summons, records show.

The investigation of Arnold began when Nolen and County Mayor Ernest Burgess met with District Attorney Jennings Jones spring 2015 to inform the prosecutor that Russell and Vanderveer were the owners of JailCigs, according to Georgia Secretary of State records.

Arnold has also identified JailCigs as an investment income on his conflict-of-interest statement filed with the Tennessee government.

Nolen, Burgess and the 21-member County Commission have expressed concerns that Arnold allowed the JailCigs product to be available to the inmates without the usual contract process with the local government. State law prohibits officials from being contractors with the government they serve.

Jones responded after his meeting with the mayor and finance director by requesting the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury examine the sheriff's involvement in JailCigs. The FBI also joined the investigation and conducted a search warrant raid of the homes and offices of Arnold, Russell and Vanderveer May 2015.

Contact Scott Broden at 615-278-5158. Follow him on Twitter @ScottBroden.